Heat Wave
by the ramblin rose
Summary: Oneshot, Alexandria. There's a heat wave, in more ways than one, and Daryl needs a little pep talk to make his move. Rickyl "bromance" in that they're the only characters present. Caryl is the main topic of conversation. Hints/discussion of Richonne. Some language and suggestion.


**AN: This is just a little "scene" or one shot. It was inspired by therealsonia on tumblr when she sent me "heat wave" as a prompt. It has hints of Richonne and the discussion/plot centers around Caryl but it's mostly Rick and Daryl that are present and part of the conversation. I guess, in some ways, it's the Rickyl bromance as well.**

 **At any rate, it's just a little scene and it's just for entertainment value, so don't expect anything too mind blowing or take it too seriously. It's meant to be light so it's a little AU in that there are no problems in Alexandria.**

 **I own nothing from the Walking Dead.**

 **I hope that you enjoy it for what it's worth! Let me know what you think!**

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The "private beach" of Alexandria was a women's only resort. It was private so that none of the women had to feel, in any way, self-conscious about shedding layers of clothes and baring, perhaps, a little more to the world than they would normally show in public.

It wasn't quite as "private" as they might have hoped it was, though. It was also only a "beach" in that it was close to the water that filled the little man-made pond in the middle of the community and it was only a "resort" in a humorous manner of speaking.

The women had blocked the area off with string. They'd gathered up everything from shoelaces to clothesline and they'd looped the string from one tree or bush to another until they'd created their oasis. Then they'd gathered up everything from towels to old sheets and tablecloths to make curtains that shut out their private area from the rest of the community. Beyond the barrier they'd created, they were laying out in their underwear—since bathing suits weren't high on the supply list—in between rounds of wading into the water and trying to cool off.

The heat wave was more than they could handle. The grid could power the houses, and it could handle some air conditioner use, but it couldn't withstand the kind of heat that a summer with a bone to pick could offer. So while the men sweated on porches and tried to drink enough ice water to cool themselves from the inside out, the women were being resourceful and putting the little pond to good use.

And since they'd created the oasis, they could decide who was allowed inside and who wasn't.

Rick had only been allowed in there because he'd been bringing Michonne lemonade and it had gotten the attention of the other women when he'd offered it through their "curtains" and called her name repeatedly to get her attention without breaking through their privacy barrier to see where she might be located at the moment. Everyone had allowed him inside with a tray of iced lemonade moments later, deciding that thirst greatly outweighed modesty for the whole lot of them.

The private beach, though, wasn't as private as they wanted it to be because their curtains really only worked to block the view from ground level. Anyone walking by wouldn't see the women without looking through the curtains, but really those were the only onlookers that couldn't get an eyeful if that's what they were after.

Rick had discovered, casually walking past the bedroom window when he'd put Judith down for her nap, that from the second story, every man in Alexandria had the bird's eye view of the sunbathing women.

Realizing that their modesty was in jeopardy, and also realizing that this meant that potentially every man in Alexandria was enjoying the view of Michonne in her panties and bra as much as he did, Rick had decided to go down there and break up the makeshift-bikini-party by letting them in on the little glitch in their system. Confident that Judith would be fine in the house in her crib, alone, for the five minutes that it would take for him to inform the women, Rick had started down the hall from the Judith's room with determination.

And he'd only stopped when he'd realized that he wasn't in the house alone.

Rick stopped in the doorway of the bedroom that Carol usually called her own—just down the hall from Judith's room and across the hall from where Rick and Michonne slept—and stood to watch the Peeping Tom in action. Or rather, to watch the Peeping Daryl.

"I might've expected it from Carl," Rick said.

Daryl jumped nearly out of his skin and muttered some profanity over the surprise as he turned around.

"You sneak up on somebody like that, get your ass killed," Daryl said.

Rick laughed to himself.

"Yeah," he ceded. "You might be right. But I wasn't sneaking up on anyone. I wasn't even trying to be quiet. Judith's out. I knew I wasn't going to wake her up. You were just too focused on—your activity—to notice me."

Daryl swallowed hard and moved his hands like he was trying to hide them. It was all well and good. He could hide the evidence if he wanted, but Rick had already seen the binoculars that he was using.

"Enjoying the show?" Rick asked.

"Don't know what the hell you talkin' about," Daryl said quickly.

Rick gestured toward Daryl's ill attempts at hiding the binoculars.

"I would've thought everyone that was watching was just watching," Rick said. "But you got creative. You got those outta my run-bag?"

Daryl looked at the binoculars in his hands like he hadn't seen them before and had no idea where they'd come from or how he'd ended up in possession of them.

"Just—checkin' 'em out," Daryl said. "Makin' sure they work. Sometimes..."

Like anybody that had launched into a lie that they weren't prepared to finish—or an explanation that they weren't prepared to give—Daryl halted because he didn't know where to go with the rest of his words.

"Sometimes binoculars stop working?" Rick asked.

Daryl shrugged his shoulders. It was an absolute non-answer, but it was all that Rick was getting.

"I think I know what you were looking at," Rick said.

"Walkers," Daryl said. "Beyond the fence. Checkin' to see—how many there were. Make sure there ain't no leftovers from that herd we seen."

Rick nodded his head.

"All clear?" Rick asked.

"What?" Daryl responded.

"You saw what you needed to see?" Rick asked, biting the inside of his cheek. "Got—got what you needed to get?"

"Man—what the hell you on about?" Daryl asked.

"How many Walkers are out there, Daryl?" Rick asked, stepping into the room. He walked over beside Daryl and reached his hand out. He caught the binoculars and for a second Daryl seemed like he wasn't going to let them go. Finally, though, he did let them go. Rick turned them around in his hands and looked at them before he repeated his question to Daryl.

Daryl cleared his throat.

"Half a dozen," Daryl said.

Rick nodded his head.

"So if I raise my binoculars right now, and look out over the fence at just this angle, I'm going to see a half-dozen Walkers outside the fence?" Rick asked.

"Give or take," Daryl said. "I was lookin' for volume, not countin'."

Rick nodded his head and stepped toward the window. Facing his body in the direction that Daryl had been looking, Rick looked first at the view that he had of the women. Daryl's location hadn't been accidental. Chances were, in fact, that he'd started out in Carl's room and searched for a good window. Maybe he'd even made it to the little window in the hallway that somewhat looked out at that angle. He'd worked his way into Carol's room because it offered privacy and a good view of exactly what he was looking for on the beach—or rather who he was looking for. From this angle, most of the women were hidden by the trees, but there was a clear view of Carol as she lie on a towel with something covering her eyes.

Rick lifted the binoculars a little and glanced out toward the fence. From this angle, there wasn't really much worth mentioning out there. There most certainly weren't a half dozen Walkers ambling about to offer any sort of imminent threat.

"You said a half-dozen?" Rick asked.

"Give or take," Daryl said. His tone was sharp. He didn't like being called out on things. That, of course, made it all the more amusing to Rick.

"One," Rick said. "At least—I think that's one. It might be a tree or—maybe a tarp blowing in the wind."

"They moved on," Daryl said.

Rick laughed to himself.

"That's what we know them for," Rick said. "Their speed and agility. Especially in the absence of anything that stirs up their attention. He glanced back at the fence line. "Who's on watch on the fences?" He asked.

"What?" Daryl asked.

"From here you have to look around them to even see the one Walker," Rick said. "Who's on watch on the fences?"

"You the one fuckin' lookin' at 'em!" Daryl said, his irritation growing.

"You've been looking at them," Rick said. "Is it Rosita?"

"Yeah," Daryl said. "Rosita."

Rick laughed and lowered the binoculars.

"It's Abraham," Rick said. "And he's been on watch for a couple of hours because he says it's cooler up there. He can catch the breeze. Wanna tell me what you were really watching? Talk about it?"

"Nothin' to talk about," Daryl said. "Keepin' an eye on the Walkers."

Rick hummed.

"I'll give you this," Rick said, "it's your story and you're sticking to it. Still, I'm about to go down there and tell the ladies that they might want to break up the party unless they don't mind Peeping Toms with window access to their fun." He held a hand up. "It's not about you," he said. "It just occurred to me that there might be a number of people around here who would realize that the second story windows offer pretty clear views of their private beach."

"Didn't notice," Daryl said.

"I can pretend I believe that," Rick said. "But I'll just say—you might want to go downstairs and get some lemonade. Put some ice in it. In about—ten minutes? When they're probably going to be dismantling everything? Take it to Carol. It's already hot out there. It might not take that long sort of warm things up. Take care of your own heat wave while you're taking care of the one that Mother Nature has decided to give us."

Daryl looked almost terrified. He shook his head at Rick as his only form of protest. It wasn't clear, though, if he was protesting Rick's suggestion or if he was still trying to pretend that he hadn't been looking in the first place.

"Or you could wait up here," Rick said. "A cold shower probably sounds good to anyone right now." He raised his eyebrows at Daryl. "If you're staying here, though—would you keep an ear out for Judith? As long as the walls are coming down, I might see if Michonne wants to go for a swim." Rick handed Daryl back the binoculars. "Only if you're staying here."

Daryl took the binoculars and stared at them once again like he didn't know what they were or how one might use them.

Rick decided to leave him and to go back to his original plan of breaking up the beach party. He only made it to the door of the room, though, before he turned back to find Daryl still standing there and studying the binoculars in his hand—or the floor just beyond them. Rick nodded his head to himself. It wasn't something that he was necessarily comfortable doing or saying—and it probably wasn't something that Daryl wanted to talk about—but it needed to be said. And it was clear that nobody had ever just out and said it to Daryl.

"Listen, Daryl, I know it's scary," Rick said with a laugh. "Michonne? She _terrifies_ me sometimes. Because I know that—she could tell me to just go away. And it would be the hardest thing that I've had to hear in a while. I wish I could tell you that it wouldn't always be that way, but it's always been a little...daunting. For me, at least. It wasn't for some people I knew. I'm sure you knew those too, but...it's worth it. To take the chance. And Carol? She's a beautiful woman. She's got a lot to offer someone. She won't wait forever. The longer we're comfortable here? The greater the chance is that she won't have to wait." He laughed to himself. "By the time I get down there to break things up, there might be someone waiting to tell her that she looks like she needs some sunscreen. What I'm tryin' to say, brother, is that you don't wanna wait too long. Do it now, before you get cold feet and put it off too long. I know from experience that the only thing harder than putting yourself out there? Is seeing someone else with someone that you wanted to be with. I don't know, but I've got a feeling that she won't let you down." Daryl didn't say anything to Rick. He didn't move at all. He acted as though he hadn't heard Rick even speaking to him. Rick accepted his silence. "Alright," Rick said. "Have it your way. I'm going to break 'em up, though. So you might want to go wherever you're going before Carol finds you in her room without a reason."

Rick turned to leave the room and stopped in the hallway when he heard Daryl call his name. He stepped back in and glanced in the door. Still fiddling with the binoculars, Daryl shrugged his shoulders at him, but he didn't look at him.

"I'll keep an ear out," Daryl said. "For lil' asskicker."

Rick smiled to himself.

"You can hear her over the shower," Rick offered. "And...good luck. Not that I think you'll be needing it."


End file.
